Nikolai Tesla
Nikolai Tesla (1856-1943) is one the greatest geniuses to live on Earth. A man of unparalleled ingenuity, his work in the early 1900s led to the production of many technologies in the following decades. Many latter-day inventors credit their designs to his original concepts, some of which were so high-minded that the technology of the time simply couldn't keep pace.
After a career developing electrical equipment for Westinghouse Electric, he was hired by Howard Stark Sr., the millionaire owner of the Stark Shipping Company. Stark Sr. saw a fortune to be made by having perfect communication with ships at sea.
It was Howard Stark, Jr. who would become Tesla's chief financier-- helming the company in the 30s, Howard Jr. gave Tesla free reign with a lavish paycheck and unlimited funding. Tesla would develop dozens of new concepts a month, ranging from half-completed ideas to fully functional prototypes.
Tesla would develop an energy reactor and superconducting ceramics that were stable above room temperature. The so-called Tesla Tokamak scales infinitely up and down, allowing for controlled fusion reactors small enough to be installed in a vehicle. Howard Stark demonstrated this at the first Stark Tech Expo, powering his Robotic Reversion designs. Tesla's designs were instrumental in the creation of the Super-Soldier-- aka, Captain Steve Rogers.
Other work in energy wave harmonics and stored resonance fields would create one of the earliest intelligent synthetic lifeforms, the android nicknamed 'Atomic Robo'. In the years ahead of the outbreak of World War II he developed a theoretical energy construct called 'Zero-Point Energy', though it was never successfully miniaturized. Tesla's work in the field of energized crystal capacitors was hugely influenced by the research into Radiation by Marie and Pierre Curie.
With Tesla's theoretical design and Stark Jr.'s aptitude for applications of mechanical engineering, new prototypes rolled out from their workshop almost daily. Concepts for advanced infantry weapons, tanks, flying cars, cargo planes, and even home appliances were produced at shocking speed. The Stark Shipping Company eventually restructured as a manufacturing corporation, just as the first shots were fired in World War II.
Tesla's impact on the world is impossible to overstate. His theoretical constructs alone continue to bring inspiration and development of new scientific theories and leaps of engineering. His death in 1943 came before the end of the war's fever pitch, and much of his designs were hidden away even from Howard Stark due to Tesla's paranoia about his designs being misused. But Atomic Robo-- and much of his other technology-- lives on, and Tesla's name is shared in schools as one of the great luminaries of his era.
